Saw and Rasp Videos.

It is now that I write this section that I realise the vagueness of my titles. Let’s be honest there are very few woodworking videos that don’t feature saws, whether they are powered or of the hand variety.

I don’t want to go through and rewrite all of the titles so I hope that confusion will not lead to a lot of disappointed people reading this hoping for table saw videos. I want the disappointment to be about the hand saw and rasps videos I link here. Or something like that. Words.

The first video that springs to mind is and was designed purely as a review of the Shinto rasp. Here is a fact that was not said in the video. ‘The video was always planned to be a make your own sign from an old saw’ video. Catchy huh? But as I was making it I soon realised that it was so entirely niche that only my amazingly supportive subscribers. would watch it. It’s a hard fact to take but had Youtube offered that particular video and title up on a non subscribed woodworker’s home page, saying ‘Hey why don’t you give this a watch’? I know that it would not have even peaked curiosity. Unless they happened to have an old logging saw and no idea what to do with it. Niche!

And so the idea of incorporating the Shinto rasp review sprang to my mind half way through the build. I was struggling to cut and shape each letter for the signs and had planned to cut 11 for one side and 9 for the other. So I hopped on amazon and ordered a rasp that I had seen used in many many videos before. It arrived and the rest is history.

A Title was Born

As you can see, I was even brave enough to try out a ‘clickable’ title stating that I recommend people to throw them away. What did I mean by them? Well that is what peaked curiosity and this was the moment I realised that Thumbnails and titles were one of the most important factors into a videos success. Content alone is not enough.

And so, this video is special to me for a number of reasons. I was right, this is a great tool. And I don’t think I sparked a frenzy of woodworkers throwing away their rasps, both Shinto and other (the title was vague, confusion could be had). At least I hope there are not a lot of sad rasps lying in landfill as a result. And I took a step as a YouTuber that has made a decent amount of difference to the channels success. Win, win.

Now saw featuring videos are, as I have said frequent everywhere but take a look below and you will see the Japanese pull saw in all its glory being used to cut off the lid of a box in a very interesting way. One that was initially inspired by the great Pask Makes channel. (What a talent)

I wont ruin it but I would go as far as to say that 90% of woodworkers have probably never tried this technique. (Wow, that should have been the title. And may well be by the time you read this. Ok, truth. I have just changed the title to this to test it out. And will report back here in a few days to tell you how the video has hit millions of views. (This is a joke incase it doesnt land)

If you are nervous using a band saw or circular saw to remove box lids, give this a go. I have had nothing but success with it and as the kerf of the Japanese saws is so thin, you don’t lose much wood and so the grain match is outstanding. It feels safe on the old fingers too.

The big tip that comes from the video is that you really need to have a nice, smooth, fast surface under the box and clean the debris between sides. And that’s about it.

I try and keep the channel a nice balance of build videos, tool reviews/recommendations and workshop improvements that way I can improve the space around me and also keep building things that make me happy and make for what I hope are inspiring videos. If I can do it, so can you. that type of thing.

So in the video on the right, I did a section about how I wish I had bought certain tools before buying the ones I bought first. In this case it was saying that maybe I would have been happier if I had just bought the Japanese pull saws before buying a DIY store Tenon saw or cross cut saw. But I didn’t and I still use both and now I think about it, most people have a saw for DIY around the house anyway. So saying buy a Japanese saw first may not be possible for anyone watching but hopefully the sentiment that they are a great tool for every woodworker comes across well enough.

One Last Thing

I feel like this statement will appear in every page where I am talking about tools so I will have to adjust the wording to hide it in plain sight. Buy what you need for the project you are doing. If you are starting out you don’t need every tool you see recommended by all of us on Youtube. Reading between the lines and translating YouTube talk, when we say you need this, what we mean is ‘In time you will benefit from this when you need it to do a job’. But it isn’t nearly as catchy.